Kaylee didn't know why the girls in her town didn't like her much. It never mattered much to her since all the boys were willing to spend so much time with her, but when she was 12 she decided to ask her Daddy about this. He said it was on account of the fact that her smile was so pretty. When she turned 16, she wished she knew more girls. Only her momma and her sisters came to her party, and her sisters only came because momma made them. Kaylee cried herself to sleep.
The next day, Willie Harrison told her he was gonna give her shiny birthday gift if she met him behind his daddy's motor shop. That night, Kaylee finally figured out why all the girls hated her.
It wasn't that she minded the attention. In fact, it was definitely the opposite. Kaylee liked when all the boys paid attention to her. She liked getting all prettified and dressing up. She just wished she had someone to share it with.
So she was excited when she came on board Serenity and found out there was another woman living there. Didn't take her long to realize that Zoe wasn't one for tea parties and girl talk. Then Inara arrived and brought all sorts of glamour and romance with her. But as hard as Kaylee tried, she still couldn't share much with the beautiful Companion. She liked Inara and all, it was just that her exotic stories made Kaylee's life seem boring.
When the doc and his little sister, River, decided to stay on board, Kaylee was all smiles for a week. Jayne teased her non-stop because he thought she was going moony-eyed over the doc, but it wasn't true. Kaylee was smiling because there was finally a girl on board close to her own age that just might like some girl talk and dressing up to go out on the town, even if she was a little crazy. It nearly broke her heart when River grabbed the gun from her and shot those three men dead. Then after everything happened at Miranda, Kaylee wondered just how much in common they actually had.
One day, River climbed down into Kaylee's bunk in a fit of giggles. She grabbed Kaylee's hand in excitement and started telling her how the Captain just gave her a kiss. It didn't matter that the kiss was only on the forehead. It was still the sweetest thing ever and River knew she had to come tell her friend as soon as possible. As they sat on Kaylee's bed giggling over how sweet the Captain and Simon could be, Kaylee realized she had finally found the friend she was looking for.